Former P&G board member asks Supreme Court to keep him out of prison

Former Procter & Gamble board member Rajat Gupta, who previously agreed to begin serving two years in prison on June 17, has asked a U.S. Supreme Court justice to let him remain free on bail.

Gupta hopes the high court will allow him to appeal his sentence for insider trading related to his service as a board member of the New York financial services firm Goldman Sachs, according to a June 10 filing submitted to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Lawyers for Gupta, 65, argued that he might have to spend a year in prison before his legal appeals are exhausted.

A previous appeal was rejected in March by three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York. The full court hasn’t ruled on his request to reconsider the case. If it refuses to do so, he could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gupta, a native of India who lives in Connecticut, joined the board of Cincinnati-based P&G in 2007 and resigned in 2011.

The Business Courier previously reported that the maker of household products such as Crest toothpaste said it had been assured by Gupta that he had not inappropriately communicated confidential information about Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG).